Patterning processes for functional polymeric materials play an important role in the fabrication of microelectronic devices, including sensors and imaging displays, optical devices, such as diffraction gratings and photonic crystals, and tools for biological research and engineering. The ability to pattern such materials on non-planar substrates enables development of devices with unique or enhanced properties; for example, one could fabricate hemispherical or ellipsoidal cameras with reduced aberration and wider fields of view, and biomimetic pressure sensors incorporated into the curved surfaces of artificial skin. Established methods, such as conventional photolithography, are not readily applied to non-planar substrates. Consequently, great effort has been devoted to developing novel patterning techniques applicable to non-planar substrates. Detachment lithography, micromolding techniques, self-assembly, and surfactant-induced pattern formation have been used to pattern polymeric materials on curved substrates; however, these methods often suffer significant drawbacks, including long processing times, large numbers of steps, and low throughput. Moreover, many such techniques require a cleanroom environment, or, in the case of chemically-driven methods, can only be used to produce patterns of limited types.
There exists a need for a simple, fast, and scalable method for patterning polymers on non-planar surfaces.